The present invention is concerned with electrically actuated valves. In principle, these valves are capable of controlling, via an electromagnetic mechanism, the application of a pressure at a precise location and/or of controlling the passage of a fluid or of a gas, by opening and or closing an orifice which controls the discharge of the fluid or of the gas. In some uses of the electrically actuated valves, it is desirable to miniaturise them.
The main parts of a conventional electrically actuated valve are an electromagnet, which is generally comprised of a fixed core and of a coil, of a movable core and of a carrier structure. Depending on the assemblage constraints, the use envisaged or any other reason, one can generally add to these main parts numerous other parts designed for specific purposes.
Furthermore, in the presently known electrically actuated valves, these three parts are comprised of several separate components. This situation is mainly a consequence of the manufacturing methods used for the ferromagnetic parts, as for example, conventional stamping or machining and it constitutes a significant drawback when miniaturising electrically actuated valves in the sense that a simple decrease in the size of the parts, without a parallel decrease in the number of parts does not provide a solution to many of the assemblage problems. The latter become often insurmountable when the size of the parts decreases and this imposes limitations on the miniaturisation.
The cylindrical shape of known electrically actuated valves and, mainly the cylindrical shape of the movable core of conventional electrically actuated valve constitute a further major drawback, and because this geometry is not optimal from the standpoint of the contact surface between the fixed core and the movable core, the magnetic force is not optimum, when considering the size of the valve.
An electrically actuated valve necessitates both electrical and pneumatic connections. This leads to undesirable complications in the design, the assembling and the functioning, specially in the case of inter-valve connections conventionally obtained by connecting the pressure admission or discharge of the electrically actuated valves, through a pneumatic base which then also becomes complicated in its design.
The purpose of the present invention is to remedy the above-mentioned drawbacks and to provide an electrically actuated valve comprised of a minimal number of parts, through the application of an injection technology to ferromagnetic metals, for the manufacture of complex multifunctional parts, having preferably a rectangular shape in order to optimise the contact surface between the fixed core and the movable core of the electrically actuated valve, with the central part thus incorporating, at least, one part of the pneumatic and/or of the electrical connections. These advantages contribute to advances in the miniaturisation of the electrically actuated valves and to a simplification of the assemblage.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is an electrically actuated valve which has the characteristic features set forth in claim 1 and/or in the dependent claims.